More Corruption in Liberty County
LIBERTY, October 23, 2009 - There was an interesting item in the Liberty County Commissioners Court meeting held on October 13, 2009. It was item 36 on the agenda that reads,
“DISCUSSION AND TAKE ACTION REGARDING PAYMENT FOR CAPTURING LIVESTOCK - JOHN WARD $125.00 - CHANCE WARD $1,875.00- CRYSTAL WARD $750.00 - AND STORAGE FEES - CRYSTAL WARD $3075.00.
The Sheriff is responsible for stray livestock in the county by law. The laws and paper work regarding the capture, storage and disposal of stray livestock are complicated and require detailed record keeping on the part of those who handle these activities on behalf of the Sheriff of any Texas County.
Paperwork became an issue in the administration of the previous Sheriff Greg Arthur and Arthur took action to design and put in place a model livestock program at the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department. Prior to the creation of this program stray livestock was handled by “Contract Cowboys,” who contracted with the county to handle these tasks. As part of Arthur’s livestock program, stray animals were handle by trained professional law enforcement officers rather that Contract Cowboys.
Additionally to implement the program County Commissioners approved the purchase of a heavy duty, 4 wheel drive, diesel pickup, large livestock trailer to haul the stray livestock, a four wheeler and panels for a portable corral all at taxpayer expense. The truck cost taxpayers $30,245.00 and the trailer cost $6,152.00 and were purchased in mid 2005. This equipment was utilized by Sheriff’s Department personnel managing stray livestock until about May of this year.
The Stray Livestock program Arthur instituted was so well thought of that it became a model for other Texas Counties to emulate and follow as they made changes to better manage their own stray livestock.
Our current Sheriff Henry Patterson of Cleveland decided to dismantle the Sheriff’s Department own livestock program and return to the practice of utilizing Contract Cowboys to manage and store stray livestock earlier this year.
John Ward, Chance Ward and Crystal Ward are the County’s new Contract Cowboys and are billing the county for their services. Even though these three people are now billing the county for their services none have a contract with the county to do so. This issue was raised in the Commissioners Court Meeting and it was decided that since the taxpayer is being billed then perhaps the County should have a contract with the Contract Cowboys to determine if taxpayers were being billed accurately and for the right amount. The matter was referred to the County Attorney’s Office who handles county contracts.
The equipment purchased by County Commissioners for use in the Sheriff’s Department Livestock Program now sits unutilized expect for the heavy duty pickup which is used as a spare vehicle that would never have been purchased at taxpayer expense were it not for the Livestock Program. Contract Cowboys provide their own equipment.
To answer the question as to why the Livestock Program at the Sheriff’s Department was dismantled takes considerable research and we must go back a couple of years when Sheriff Patterson ran as the Republican Candidate for Sheriff in 2008.
We began by obtaining from the Liberty County Clerk’s Office copies of Patterson’s campaign finance reports filed throughout his campaign that specifies not only his campaign expenses but his campaign contributors as well.
What stands out in the reports is the fact that there was not only one, but two $5,000.00 campaign contributions made by single individuals.
In reviewing finance reports of other candidates running for county wide offices both now and in the past elections, talking to known campaign contributors in the past, as well as political insiders who are aware of how campaigns are financed, we discovered that in this poor county a campaign contribution of $5,000.00 from a single individual virtually does not happen. Individuals just don’t make those types of contributions to candidates.
An insider told i-dineout.com, “You don’t contribute that kind of money to a candidate unless you want something.”
The chances of a candidate receiving a $5,000.00 contribution from a single individual are about the same in this county of being struck by lightening. Yet, Sheriff Patterson was so lucky that he receive two $5,000.00 contributions from single individuals, on the same day, January 9, 2008.
The individuals who made these contributions to Henry Patterson are R. C. Sweeten and John Stockton both of Cleveland, Tx. Parts of the City of Cleveland are outside of Liberty County and both Sweeten and Stockton live outside of Liberty County. Neither can even vote in a Liberty County election yet both appear to be very interested in Liberty County Politics as evidenced by their sizeable campaign contributions to Republican Henry Patterson.
John Ward is the father of Chance Ward. Crystal Ward is the wife of Chance Ward and Chance Ward is the son-in-law of R. C. Sweeten, Sheriff Patterson’s major campaign contributor.
John Stockton is a large cattle owner with livestock in Liberty County. In a letter to the editor of a Cleveland Newspaper written only a few weeks ago after Patterson dismantles the livestock program at the Sheriff’s Department, Stockton writes complaining of previous treatment of the livestock program. Stockton wrote, “Some of my cattle were, in my opinion, impounded wrongfully. I was told by the sheriff's department employee that I had to pay $3,400 to get my cattle back…”
Stockton’s letter to the editor was titled, “Where are the ethics?” He writes, “I would like to thank the people in Liberty County that are trying to do something about ethics in the county. Liberty County has a new sheriff who I believe will correct this kind of problem in the sheriff's department.”
You must remember when stray livestock get out, the public must be protected and it is the County Sheriff’s responsibility to handle it. When a stray animal is picked up the animal is stored hoping in time that the rightful owner of the animal is located and the animal returned. According to the law if the rightful owner of a stored animal is not found, then the county has the right to sell the animal at auction to recoup the expense of picking up the animal and storing it. It is better for everyone involved for the rightful owner of a stray animal to be found and the animal returned to the owner after the owner pays the cost of pickup and storage. When this happens the taxpayers save money.
When the Sheriff’s Department was managing stray livestock an effort was made to locate owners and the county was reimbursed for storage and pickup costs by owners and very few animals had to be sold at auction.
In reviewing over a hundred pages of documents, the case of two stray goats became of interest because it was questioned at Commissioners Court. Documents tell us that Chance Ward picked up the two goats in Rye, Tx. and Crystal Ward billed the county $1,500.00 to store the goats for a period of 50 days. The goats, should there owner not be located, could have been sold at auction and disposed of after 18 days, so why store the goats for 50 days at taxpayer expense? Secondly if sold at auction livestock experts tell us the goats would only bring about $35.00 each. The taxpayer paid $1,500.00 to store 2 goats, and a pickup fee to pickup the two goats that combined are only worth $70.00. This is a livestock program that truly makes money for the contract cowboys at taxpayer expense.
In Summary let's look at a time line -
1. Patterson runs for Sheriff
2. Patterson receives major campaign contributions from Stockton and Sweeten
3. Patterson gets elected
4. Patterson dismantles model Sheriff’s Office Livestock Program and brings back Contract Cowboys, Major Campaign Contributor Sweeten’s relatives, Chance Ward, Crystal Ward and John Ward.
5. Stockton writes letter to newspaper praising Patterson for his decisions restoring ethics to the department
6. Taxpayers get screwed.
Just who couldn’t be happy with all that?
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